Fitness Model Space*: Exclusive: Male form by KJ Heath (NSFW)

Photographer KJ Heath from NewYork, has a very beautiful sense of human body. He puts his models into the ordinary environment and play with anatomy via beautiful body language. For FMS Blog, KJ Heath shares exclusive images from his personal archive to show how organic and sensual is the male form.

Read Interview below.

How you get into male photography?
Nine years ago I started a charity fundraising event called Bar-lesque with a couple of friends. It was a photography based event, and we brought on a really talented photographer to shoot it. That guy did it for the first 3 years, but during the middle of the third year, he had a family emergency and had to pull out. We were stuck and weren't sure where to find a photographer on short notice, so I bought a camera and some lights, and photographed the rest of the event. Looking back, it truly was not my best work, but I loved doing it and just never stopped.

You have fantastic models with amazing masculine forms and beautiful faces. Where and how you scout them?
Early on, I used sites like Model Mayhem and Facebook to find models. Now, I almost never have to scout models. They find me. I have a running list of between 30-40 models to schedule. It is really challenging. There truly are so many beautiful men and much too little time to photograph them all.

Do you have any challenges with location? It seems you use hotels as a studio, with only natural light?
I keep lists of places I've been or that I find online so that when I'm in a city I have options. I mainly shoot in NYC and Chicago, and I know both of those cities very well. I also have a studio in Chicago, so much of my work happens in my own studio.

Your images are different. We can see your ability to work with human body and find out incredibly artistic and simultaneously natural poses. Sometimes it seems like your models are dancing in your frame. Do you emphasize attention on this while working with your models?
Well thank you for that. Yes, movement during the shoot is important to me, so sometimes they ARE actually dancing. I've been very involved in the dance community in Chicago which has given me the opportunity to work with lots of professional dancers as models. I love working with dancers because they generally are very body aware and understand story-telling through movement. When I'm working with a model, I want them to think about what story they hope to tell through the frames. Nothing is worse to me than a model that just stands there.

Do you think that any young man who wish to become a fitness or artistic nude photography model can rock it? What makes a good picture, model or photographer?

I've shot so many models. I can honestly say that not everyone can rock it. Good outlook and body are just the entry point. To be successful, the model needs to be very confident, they need to have a personality that can translate into the shot, and they need to be able to trust the photographer. It is hard work, so they really need to want this and be committed. The best models treat this like a job.